“Better?” exclaimed Bob. “Mother, I feel so good that I’ve forgotten I ever felt any other way. I tell you there’s a good deal of difference between reading how some one does things and gettin’ out and doin’ ’em yourself. Me for doin’ things now—not dreamin’ about ’em. That’s the way to be happy.”
[CHAPTER XIII]
A MIDNIGHT COMPACT CONCERNING THE BLACK PIRATE
It was about two weeks before the Easter vacation would come on, and Hal and Tom would be free to start for Anclote Island in the Three Sisters. But the services of Captain Joe having been retained, the preparations for stocking the schooner with provisions and camp equipage went on from day to day. So interested did the boys become in this that the excursion to Perdido was abandoned. A week from the day Bob and Tom returned from Newark, Bob was to go to Tampa by rail. His mother was arranging to go with him.
Jerry Blossom’s acquisition of a fortune had turned the colored boy’s head. But, before he could make any great inroads on his share of the ten thousand dollars, his mother managed to secure it. Thereafter, the improvident Jerry was furnished only such sums as his frugal parent thought he needed. His preliminary inroad on his funds, however, had resulted in an outfit of gorgeous clothing and a gold plated watch, which, with one evening’s “crap” shooting, had deprived fat Mrs. Blossom of sixty-five dollars.
When Jerry settled down to a realization that his great fortune was beyond his control and had lost his new watch in gambling, it was nearly time for Bob and Mrs. Balfour to start for Tampa. In the two weeks since the colored boy had come into funds, he had thought little about Anclote Island. Suddenly he realized that it would be better to reengage with the club and get the benefit of “board and keep” at small pay than to remain in town with his mother’s hand fast about the purse strings of his fortune.
For reasons which he did not quite understand, Bob had somehow come to be looked on as the real leader of the club. The evening before Bob left for Tampa, the doleful-faced colored boy waited for him after the usual meeting broke up.
“Mistah Bob,” began Jerry, diplomatically doffing his hat, “Ah done reckon Ah bettah seek out some employment, even if Ah is a rich man.”
“Aren’t you going with the boys on the schooner?” asked Bob.